ANNOTATION SYSTEM FOR CREATING AND RETRIEVING MEDIA AND METHODS RELATING TO SAME

• US 20140143257A1
• Filed: 01/24/2014
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trio Systems, LLC
• Original Assignee: Trio Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Bartholomew, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,507,776 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/908 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

The invention described herein is generally directed to a method and apparatus for creating and retrieving audio data. In one implementation the invention comprises an annotation system configured to record, store, and retrieve media. The annotation system contains a set of client-processing devices configured to capture media for subsequent playback. Each client-processing device typically contains a record button to initiate the capture and is configured upon performing the capture operation to trigger an association of a unique ID with the media. The client-processing devices are further configured to upload the media and a unique ID to a server for purposes of storage. The server obtains the media and unique ID for subsequent retrieval and provides the media and the unique ID to at least one client-processing device from the set of client processing devices.

Claims

1. A system for packaging multimedia information, comprising:

a first computer configured to perform the following steps;

obtain first media data;

create an annotation object comprising annotation data enabling access to the first media data, wherein the annotation data consists of at least one second media data, a reference to the first media data, and offset location data;

store the first media data and the annotation object in a database file, wherein the database file comprises database nodes that can be retrieved as a cohesive unit;

store the database file in a repository;

retrieve the database file from the repository and send the database file to a client device in response to a request by a client device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first and second media data comprises at least one of text, digital ink, audio, video, photo, location data, bar code scan, RFID value, and other digital media.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reference to the first media data comprises a globally unique identification.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the globally unique identification includes the offset data to enable access to a subset of the first media data.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the globally unique identification comprises a URL.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the database file is compressed.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the size of the database file is reduced by storing only the variable length data in each database node and incorporating an index referencing the location of each node contained in the file.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the size of the database file is further reduced by compressing database nodes individually.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the active data from each node is divided into two or more parts, and one or more of the parts are stored in fixed sized blocks.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the fixed sized blocks are of varying sizes.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first computer associates a unique identifier with the annotation object enabling retrieval of the annotation object from a server.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the offset data is implied by storing a reference to the annotation object within the first media data.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reference to the first media data and the offset data comprise a reference to audio data and a playback offset within the audio data.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reference to the first media data and the offset data comprise a reference to video data and a playback offset within the video data.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reference to the first media data and the offset data comprise a reference to text data and a playback offset within the text data.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reference to the first media data and the offset data comprise a database key.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the client device is capable of receiving the database file and extracting the media data from the database file for presentation to a user.